Pumpkin Pie

Prep Time:    30 minutes            Baking Time:    20 minutes (blind bake)      60 minutes for filled crust
Yield:   1 – 9 inch pie

Crust for a Single Crust Pie:

190 g (1 ¼ cups) all purpose flour
3/4 teaspoon (4 mL) salt
2 tablespoons (30 mL) sugar

115 g (1/2 cup / 1 stick) unsalted butter, very cold, cut into small chunks
1 large egg, cold
2 teaspoons (10 mL) vinegar
Ice water

Pumpkin Filling:

2 large eggs, at room temperature
1 large egg yolk, at room temperature (reserve egg white for decorating)
185 mL (3/4 cup / 160 g) packed dark brown sugar
1 ½ teaspoons (7 mL) cinnamon
½ teaspoon (2.5 mL) ground ginger
¼ teaspoon (1.5 mL) ground nutmeg
½ teaspoon (2.5 mL) Chinese 5-spice, or allspice
pinch of cloves
½ teaspoon (2.5 mL) salt
2 teaspoons (10 mL) pure vanilla extract

1 can (398 mL / 15 oz) pure pumpkin puree (about 1 ½ cups)
300 mL (1 ¼ cup) heavy cream, at room temperature

Method:

1.  Make the dough for the crust:   With a food processor fitted with a metal blade (or with a pastry blender), mix together the flour, sugar, and salt. Gradually incorporate the icy cold butter chunks until the mixture resembles pea-size chunks.
2.  In a measuring cup, whisk the cold egg;    add the vinegar and just enough ice cold water to make 1/3 cup (85 mL).
3.  Gradually add the egg-vinegar mixture to the flour mixture and mix just until it comes together – until it starts to look like bread crumbs. Don’t over-process.
4.  Turn out mixture onto a large piece of wax paper or plastic wrap.  Gently, and minimally,  form a ball of dough.  You should see beautiful bits of butter throughout.   Flatten the ball into a disk shape – about 5-6 inches in diameter.  This will assist in rolling out the dough later on.
5.  Wrap dough disk in the wax paper or plastic wrap, and refrigerate for at least ½ hour, or overnight. Dough can also be frozen for later use.
6.  At Baking Time:   Roll out the rested dough, and fit it into a pie plate.   You have some options at this point  –  You can crimp or flute the dough along the circumference of the pie plate;   or  you can trim the edges and preserve the trimming to make some decorative edges (see below)  after it has been blind baked.
7.  Prick the dough in a few places; prepare it for blind baking, and let the dough rest in the fridge for 20-30 minutes.
8.  Preheat the oven to 375⁰F (190⁰C).   Blind bake crust (see Tips above) for 15-20 minutes while you prepare the pumpkin filling.
9.  Prepare Filling:   In a large bowl whisk together the eggs, egg yolk, brown sugar, spices, salt, and vanilla.  Add the pumpkin puree and thoroughly combine. Stir in the heavy cream.
10.  Lower oven temperature to 325⁰F (165 degrees C).
11.  Make decorative edges:   Roll out reserved dough and make ½ inch circles – you will need about 40-45 of them.

Brush the edge of the blind baked crust with the egg white. Overlap the dough circles around the edge of the pie crust, pressing them gently to adhere to the crust.

Brush the edges with egg white and sprinkle with some sanding sugar.

12.  Carefully pour the filling into the prepared crust.

13.  Bake for 60 minutes at 325⁰F ( or until an inserted knife comes out clean).   If the crust edges seem to be getting too dark, carefully place some foil over the edges to prevent over-browning.
14.   Let pie cool completely before serving – ideally overnight.  Baked pumpkin pie keeps very well in the refrigerator for two days.